Underneath
by Fourangers
Summary: ANBU. Mysterious, swift and quiet ninjas. Rumors of their deadly competency reaches worldwide but if one is a hyperactive loud blond and another is a brooding silent brunet, anyone would wonder the veracity of such rumor..After!manga/Adv


**Underneath**

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**ANBU:** **An**satsu Senjutsu Tokushu **Bu**tai (literally Assassination Tactics Special Military Force). The ANBU work directly under the leadership of the Hokage. This specialized ninja battalion generally work in groups of four to five. They are responsible for assassinations and missions requiring highly trained ninjas.

(source: www . leafninja . com)

Living inside a world where people easily disappeared through walls, defied gravity and literally breathed fire through their mouths made her realize that she was indeed, only an ordinary girl. However, Kazuya Tanaka always prided herself for her observational skills, a trait inherited from her father, a daimyo, especially needed when you'd want to maintain your position of power. For this skill and many other considerations, as she saw the tense expression of her uncle, she knew…her innocent childhood time had ended.

After many many years of reclusion, her father had at last summoned her out of nowhere for an apparently simple meeting. Considering the long distance between her uncle's house and the main quarters, her uncle had hired some of Konoha's ninjas to protect her as bodyguards, even kindly offering to accompany her alongside this journey. Tanaka smiled meekly, though she appreciated this gesture, it was far from being a good comfort with what she'll face in the upcoming days.

"They are already over 30 minutes late." Her uncle mumbled as they stared in the gates, awaiting the so called ninjas.

She nodded, inwardly glad that they were taking their time to arrive. Maybe if this was a relevant reason to postpone this meeting and then she would…

"Late. I can't believe this." Her uncle started walking on circles and Tanaka answered in an attempt of calming him:

"It's all right, Noboru-jiisan. We're not going to travel today anyways."

"Yes, but you've waited so much to meet your father!" She stiffened slightly but not enough to catch her uncle's attention. "You've wanted his attention since you're toddler. And now that your father had at last summoned you, some incompetent ninjas are taking their time to arrive."

Suddenly, they heard some shouts coming from outside and went silent, concentrating their ears to comprehend the dialogue.

"—on the left, Bastard!" A livid yell punctuated in the middle of the forest.

"Are you blind, idiot? If we went to left, we'd obviously waste more 30 minutes than we did already." Another voice answered back.

"Nah, I'm sure if we went to the left there'd be a shortcut, and that would compensate the previous 30 minutes we wasted before."

"The 30 minutes we wasted was because you lead us to a swamp instead of going straight to the house."

"Heeeeey—I'd have corrected if you didn't fight to get the map from my hands Teme!" Tanaka and Noboru narrowed their eyes, seeing some distinct human shapes appearing in the midst of trees.

"You're too stubborn for your own good. If you didn't fight back, then we wouldn't be covered in lime and mud right now, moron."

"—Well, if you didn't use that low kick to disarm me, I wouldn't drag you together to fall in the mud!"

"If you obediently had given me the map, we wouldn't have this kind of problem at all dumbass!"

The voices were getting louder and clearer, however, the present clients didn't know if it was due to their gradual proximity towards their house or it was for the fact that the discussion was getting more heated.

"Hey, obviously I wouldn't give you the map! You should go after me, follow my orders, I'm your leader!"

"I wonder how trashed was Tsunade-sama to allow you being the ANBU captain from our squad. Clearly she wasn't on her right judgment to comply something like that."

"Doesn't anyone wondered how much you're a whiny b—" Tanaka heard a loud sound of something connecting flesh and she glanced bewildered to her uncle. Naturally, her uncle glanced back with the same confused expression. "Ow, what the fuck! You Bastard, don't kick me like that! Seriously, what was wrong in _my _mind to agree on you going with me in this mission?"

"Certainly because you knew that you needed baby-sitting, as Tsunade-sama had eloquently pointed out."

"Asshole!" One of the human shaped contour tried to punch the other one, however the latter deflected. "That's not how you should treat your superior, teme! And I don't see us getting any nearer a house, how are you going to justify your lame ass now? Hah!"

"Hn. Moron. Look in front of you." At last, Tanaka and Noboru both stared at two young men dressed in ANBU uniform, the one who pointed at them was a dark haired one while the supposed leader was blond. The latter blinked his cerulean eyes.

"Oh!...hi!" Both sprinted towards the gate, the blond a little bit more clumsier than the brunet one. He smiled sheepishly. "Huh…Are you…Kazuya Noboru and Kazuya Tanaka?" At meeting both hesitant nods, he grinned brightly. "Good! Well, we're the ANBU guards that were assigned to protect you and—"

"Wait a minute." Her uncle cut him off. "Are you two alone? Where are the rest of the crew?" He asked.

The leader blinked again in apparent confusion. "The rest? No, the Hokage only assigned the two of us to protect you."

"What?" Noboru immediately straightened up, glowering in indignation. "That can't be true! I've invested a massive amount of money to employ bodyguards in this journey! There should be a mass of people guarding us! I made sure that this covered up the salary of at least 5 or 6 skilled people, there must be some kind of mistake if I'm only seeing two persons here."

"Well, obviously, our Hokage decided that with this kind of mission, it'd be better to invest with quality instead of quantity." The blond met two incredulous stares and a suppressed snort on his left side and lightly elbow-jabbed his teammate. "If you still have any kind of question regarding the recruiting, you can see our resumé here." He picked up a golden scroll from his backpack and respectfully showed to her uncle.

Obviously, Tanaka and her uncle gazed from head to toe both supposedly respected ANBU konoha nins, observing some caked mud on the hair or dried earth imprinted on the white uniform. When the blond stretched widely his lips, she could see some cracks of dried mud giving way while the brunet rolled his eyes, still looking dignified even with some dried leaves stuck in his dark hair. Picking up the scroll that oddly enough was still pristine, Noboru opened up to glance at the contents.

Tanaka couldn't really see what was written inside, since she was only seeing the profile of her uncle, though she notice how he was steadily widening his eyes till he smoothed all his wrinkles around his eyes and all lodged on his forehead, as well as he was slowly gaping his mouth, looking thoroughly impressed. Whatever achievements they had succeeded in their ninja career, surely it must be something awe-striking to make her uncle _that _surprised over it.

"Well." He coughed slightly as he folded back the scroll and returned to the blond nin. "I guess. With this kind of resumé I may…allow this temporary concession, but I'll surely complain with your Hokage later."

"So you accept us as your bodyguards in this mission." The blond asked in akin eagerness.

Noboru slowly nodded, sipping the tea their servants just poured in his cup.

"YES!" The shrill shout made both clients jump out of their seats though the dark-haired shinobi was completely unruffled of all. "See that teme! You said I wouldn't succeed to convince them about all this." The tanned man pointed gleefully to his teammate though the other one answered with a careless shrug.

"I bet Tsunade-sama must had added some flourish words in your achievements, or else you wouldn't be accepted so easily in this mission."

"Why you fucking liar! Every mission was A or S class, and each successful mission I had was the most impressive shit in ninja history!"

The brunet deadpanned. "Let me guess. You rescued a rabid cat from his crazy overly-affectionate owner? "

The blond bared his teeth, growling, almost ready to pounce on his comrade when Noboru coughed once again, deviating the conversation right on time. "Well, since you're going to be our bodyguards in this mission, I'd like to know your codenames for better identification. "

Both shinobis quickly composed themselves as they sat in front of their clients, the leader speaking first. "Well, I'm Fox. I'll be using this mask" He showed a porcelain mask with some fox adornments. "through the whole mission, so you'll identify me like that."

"I see."Tanaka and Noboru nodded once again in acknowledgment, awaiting for the other presentation.

Another uncomfortable silence ensued when Tanaka interrupted, smiling meekly. "And the other gentleman…?"

Fox shrugged, a mischievous grin imprinted on his whiskered cheeks. "The teme? No worries. You can call him Peacoc—" His speech was swiftly interrupted with a violent elbow-jab on his ribs and the brunet spoke by himself.

"Eagle." He said in monotone and monosyllabic. It was Tanaka's turn to blink bewildered, surely Eagle exchanged more colorful vocabulary with Fox and she expected him to be a little bit more outspoken than this, however she received only a taciturn grunt. How unexpected.

"So…we'll start tomorrow morning, it'll probably take 3 or 4 days to arrive on the castle." Her uncle spoke as he looked on the clock. "We have some lodgings to accommodate the shinobis, however they are all in one bedroom, should I warn my servants to—"

"No, it's all right." Both shinobis interrupted together the older man's musing with a careless tone.

Noboru asked. "…are you sure?" At meeting the question, they nodded and shrugged with the same laidback manner, even tilting the shoulder in the same way.

"…Well. I'll call someone to guide the way, the bathroom is also adjoined with that quarter." Noboru snapped his fingers as another servant arrived, the ANBU ninjas following dutifully though it was quickly interrupted with a bright yell:

"Aaaaaah! Finally a comfy bed after weeks sleeping in tents! Sweet!"

"Lazy ass dobe."

"Shut up!"

Tanaka and Noboru quickly reached the same conclusion. If anything bad happened, at least the brunet looked competent enough. **He** would guarantee their safety.

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Fox was, resuming in one word, bright. Bright grin, loud voice, bright hair, lively eyes. He's an excellent companion for travelling to, obviously, brighten things up if only Tanaka's uncle didn't narrow his eyes every five minutes, fearing for his competency. Tanaka never met a ninja who was so talkative, carefree and friendly, most previous ninjas her uncle had employed all carried a mysterious solemn aura, talking reservedly and using a formal language whenever they addressed any issue to her. In five minutes short, Fox was already happily talking with her like he had known her in his entire life. Tanaka had to admit it was quite refreshing to meet such…unique persona.

Eagle, on the other hand, perfectly fit the stereotype of a typical ninja, deadly swift with piercing eyes. However, even if he did give an unapproachable aura towards Tanaka and her uncle, the whole stoicism was destroyed the moment Fox approached him. Either they bickered or they'd end up…yeah, bickering a little bit more. At first Tanaka thought they were in bad terms, some kind of vicious rivalry of some sort but after some time…it almost looked like they discussed more out of habit.

"This is worrisome." A serious tone cut out her musings and she glanced down, Fox crouched while he examined the ground. "Eagle." He called out his teammate to a secluded place while she and her uncle rested near a campfire.

She couldn't really discern the murmurs they had exchanged, however as she saw every amused expression completely erased from the tanned face, her instincts already knew something was wrong. Fox showed traces of dirt to Eagle, as the brunet approached the gloved fingertips to his nose and sniffed it. They exchanged a silent conversation, as the pale face hardened up and Fox returned to the campfire, wearing a loose grin.

"Kazuya Noboru-sama?" There was something on the tone of his voice that immediately picked her uncle's attention. "Say, do you recall anyone holding some kind of strong grudge against you, or against your niece?"

"Not particularly, not really." Noboru shook his head. "Why?" Before any of the ninjas could reply, Fox created five identical bodies of himself as three grabbed Tanaka and Noboru out of attack range and Eagle summoned a set of shurikens.

"That was fast." Fox mumbled, his hand already creating some kind of spinning orb. "10 on top, 20 on the right, 23 on the left, 14 front and 28 back."

"I'll take care of the top, right and front." Eagle started some several set of hand signs with his right hand, the left one already aiming towards some target.

Fox instantly turned backwards, already reaching to wound three or four enemies with his spiraling orb, grabbing a kunai on his pouch. One enemy was readying some hand signs when the blond shouted:

"Fuuton! Use it!" He crouched while Eagle made faster hand signs, his chest inflating and mouth preparing to expel:

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" Series of fireballs flew directly towards the victims, only to suddenly gain strength and size, burning them to the ground. Fox already created other two clones to defend Eagle's back, cutting through a row of enemies as one of them inflated his cheeks and spat:

"Suiton: Mizu Kamikiri!" Sharp forms of water perforated deeply on six or seven chests, the other clone also making another jutsu: "Suiton: Mizurappa!" a torrent of water drenched a whole row of enemies. The clones were instantly dispelled as an enemy cut through his abdomen, however, Eagle destroyed their kunais with his sword, aiming electric needles in the same place the previous water needles had lodged on the enemies.

"Chidori Nagashi." Eagle connected each electric needle, using water as conductor, immobilizing most adversaries in vicinity.

Too fascinated staring at the battle, Tanaka only saw at this moment, a sword approaching deadly to her chest and she shut her eyes, terrified. "Suiton: Mizu no muchi!" A water whip instantly wrapped around the sword and disarmed the enemy from its weapon, the blond nin quickly approaching towards him with an open hand that struck his throat, the enemy coughed breathlessly as Fox elbow jabbed on the nape, rendering him unconscious.

"Are you alright?" Fox yelled, not waiting for a positive answer, creating more three clones.

"Dobe, concentrate on protecting the clients, I'll eliminate the enemies!" Eagle barked out.

"What the fuck Bastard, I won't let you hog all the fun!" Fox yelled back, throwing shurikens towards his teammate, after he broke the neck of some unfortunate enemy.

"Idiot, quit being so nosy and concentrate on the task!" Eagle deflected each shuriken thrown to him with his long sword, the flying projectiles striking accurately enemies from above. However, instead of falling normally, those corpses melted in slimy liquid, falling on Eagle's head. "Wh—"

"Fuuton: Atsugai!" Fox quickly summoned a whirlwind that temporarily dislodged the liquid from Eagle's body, as the brunet continued the combo:

"Katon: Zukkoku!" An instant wave of uninterrupted fire burnt the slimy liquid to a crisp, altogether with other adversaries.

As they surveyed the battlefield, there were only several scattered around them, many were already stumbling, ready to flee. Although both ANBU ninjas allowed some to escape from their grasp, the blond nin created another whip of water and enclosed around one body.

"Handcuff him, we'll use it for interr—" The trapped body instantly exploded and morphed into the same purple slimy liquid, staining their creamy uniforms. "What the—" Fox mumbled, but Eagle swiftly picked up a glass bottle and placed the questioned liquid inside.

"You think it's probably a modified Mizu Bunshin or something like that?" Fox spat, trying to clean up the dirt. He suddenly widened his eyes, as did his comrade, when they simultaneously placed the index and middle finger in front of their mouth and shouted loudly, the liquid instantly falling to the ground. "They suck chakra." Fox stared at the fallen liquid.

"Thankfully, with a limited container. If we deposit too much it dissolves out."

"Yeah, but those kinds of liquid generally doesn't develop a life on its own or start attacking us. This is frikkin' weird." Fox turned around with an apologetic smile. "Sorry for the whole confusion. Are you all right?"

The old man mumbled surprised. "I didn't expect that many attacking us all of a sudden." He lifted, offering his hand to his niece. "As far as I'm concerned, we didn't attract any animosity towards anyone and Tanaka-chan is not well-known from being a daimyo's daughter."

"Anyone who chose to attack you, has an extensive knowledge about chakra and ninjutsu." The dark-haired shinobi muttered, throwing a glance towards Fox.

"Huh? Oh…" The blond scratched the back of his head and made several clones. "Noboru-sama, Tanaka-sama, we'll discuss about some stuff here and there, but don't worry about it, you can continue walking ahead of us."

"You saying that your clones are going to lead the way? Now I'm worried, I think I'm going to make some by myself too." Eagle smirked.

"Hey! Just 'cuz I got lost here and there doesn't mean that I'm bad with directions!" Fox readily protested.

"Hn. For someone who got confused leading us to a swamp instead of a lake, you surely talk big."

"I already said that—"

Noboru cleared his throat. Loudly. Tanaka couldn't help but to shake her head slightly amused, intrigued by the fact that some mere seconds before they were engaging seriously in battle and now they had returned once again to their usual bickering. It almost appeared that the whole serious atmosphere had disappeared in thin air.

"As I was saying…Don't worry about it, I also know the way to the castle too." The old man stared disapprovingly towards the young shinobis and turned around. "Let us go Tanaka-chan, we don't have time to waste it idly."

By the moment they arrived to another meeting point, weirdly enough, both shinobis were already waiting them with the whole camping site ready for rest. However, Tanaka censed some apprehension on Fox's usual grin, Eagle staring at them without any trace of easiness.

"We've discussed over those problems about the mysterious liquid that had previously attacked us, Noboru-sama."

The old man sat on a nearby fallen trunk and retorted rather tiredly. "And? What about it?"

"Although we didn't find any specific person that would personally hold a grudge over you or would know Tanaka-sama's identity, we did identify an abandoned facility who used to conduct experiments such as those." Eagle replied instead.

"So we'll just avoid walking through this specific area and everything would be fine." Noboru answered in a tone of finality.

"Well…that's the problem." Blue eyes flickered quickly towards onyx ones, Tanaka was steadily growing apprehensive over this situation. "We had checked out every possible way to reach the castle, and they had already covered with traps all over the place." Fox sighed, idly rubbing his fingers altogether. "As we noticed that they left traces on the ground, they are prepared to retaliate if we don't move fast."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"The reason that creatures attacked us was because we were resting over 2 hours in the same place. The activation of this trap guarantees retaliation not only to us, but to anyone who is traveling using this path."

"What? Attack even civilians?" Noboru widened his eyes, distraught with the sudden revelation. "Has anyone been attacked by them yet?"

Instead, her uncle met silence. The sudden warmth clouded the azure eyes until it sharpened into steely sapphire ones, tanned fingers slowly gathering into a balled fist. It was when Tanaka realized that she had shivered against her will, staring stupefied to the usual brightness that could acquire a heated rage.

All of sudden, Eagle simply knocked lightly Fox's head. The blond stared confused towards his teammate before calming down, sighing heavily. It was enough to douse the tense moment, though his next set of words would startle the present people: " I want to investigate about this place."

"**What.**" For the first time in the mission, Eagle's tone was stripped from any amusement towards his teammate, the glare fully settling upon the blonde.

"Well, we have to 'neeways, right?" Fox quickly blurted out, glowering in the same intensity. "The whole trip consumes 4 days, I don't think Noboru-sama and Tanaka-sama would succeed staying awake through this whole time!"

"Dobe, you're making again excuses just to help out on something that is out of our control."

"It's not." Fox almost pouted.

"Oh, you're not even bothering yourself to deny my accusation. I understand your frustration, but we don't have the time for it." Fox rolled his eyes, mouthing the words noiselessly. "Look at me, dobe." After a brief pause, the cerulean eyes returned the gaze beneath his blond locks. "We'll simply finish this mission faster while we ask for reinforcements. Then, we'll concentrate on destroying the facility."

"Well…but we wouldn't know how long it'll take to do all this right?" Noboru interrupted their musing, rubbing the junctions of his eyebrows. "Konoha is still far away from here, it'll take 3 or 4 days to arrive here, so I don't want to imagine how many victims will fall in their trap because of us."

"I'll create several clones to aid in this journey, I'm sure it won't disrupt this whole mission." Fox replied towards Noboru, purposely breaking the eye contact from his friend.

"If you insist…I think this is the best of all." The old man spoke in tone of finality.

"Thank you." Fox bowed slightly towards Noboru and already made hand signs, creating 4 clones. He grabbed the pouch from the ground, readying himself to jump away when a pale hand swiftly latched around his arm, picking up the blonde's attention.

What happened between them, for Tanaka, was something inexplicable. Onyx eyes were stretched wide, almost looking vulnerable, displaying too much emotion with only one look. For some reason, that made the girl avert her own from that particular moment, embarrassed that she was being invasive about something between those two.

Fox stared back, eyes softening at the admission. "I'll be fine." He reassured. Eagle's hand, however, tightened even further, lips thinning through clenched teeth, until he released once again, returning to his monotone expression. He muttered something that Tanaka's ears couldn't capture, in which the blond responded with the same rushed tone. Fox briefly grinned, somehow managing to relax Eagle's stance until they turned around, Fox jumping away and Eagle preparing for the patrol.

"Um…Eagle-san?" She tentatively muttered only to receive a slight annoyed look that made her flinch fearfully. "How are we going to meet Fox-san afterwards?"

The brunet snorted, albeit a little bit in exasperation, picking up his mask. "He'll manage. Rest enough, we still have a long way to arrive at the castle."

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It wasn't an easy period from this whole trip for the Takuyas, accompanied by Eagle the whole time.

He was efficient, no doubt about this. Also, Fox's 4 clones were also doing their job, either helping in scouting the whole area before resting for a while, either offering piggy back to Noboru, since the old man was too aged for such long-distance travel.

However, in comparison to the beginning of this whole mission, where the Konoha nins discussed constantly and kept taunting each other, the sudden supposedly peaceful silence made the whole air completely tense. Even if the clones did maintain a reasonable level of dialogue with Eagle, for some reason they couldn't sustain their gaze towards their teammate.

Eagle, on the other hand, was now completely focusing on the task in hand, eyes sharpened as he completely ignored any kind of idle interruption, clearly exempting his profession. However, there was something that nagged Tanaka, something that told her that such concentration wasn't caused to show his efficiency…

Sometimes, one of the clones would drag him out of their hearing range, he would then, ask something to the clone with crossed arms. After the clone rolled his eyes, the golden-haired shinobi would inform something that would make Eagle's shoulders slump, somehow relieved, before squaring again, using a tone of dismissal.

This procedure repeated several times through the day, until one of the clones widened his eyes alarmed.

"The enemy caught us. We should run!" He warned.

"What?" Both Takuyas muttered, though two clones grabbed them far away from the current point.

"Where." Eagle narrowed his eyes, his fingertips closing around forming a circle.

"In five minutes, 9 o'clock. Beware, the monster is stronger than what we had previously fought before." Suddenly, the clone shook his head frantically, and then shouted. "Don't use—!" The clone disappeared into a puff of smoke, a sharp talon appearing in the middle of the forest. Others appeared, in an attempt to strike Eagle, though the shinobi kept ducking and escaping before they could pierce through him.

As the shadows of that body were clearing up, beyond the eyes of simple civilians like Tanaka and Noboru, lied the biggest spider they had ever met. It had the same consistency and color like the previous liquid they saw, some bubbles were popping out from the grotesque form as it stood menacingly, claws ready to attack the sole target.

"Eagle!" The other three clones shouted towards his companion, still guarding their clients.

"Stay there, protect them!" Eagle barked out, when the claw suddenly changed form and snaked in his direction, before changing into a spear and running towards the nin.

Eagle parried with his sword, though the strength of the strike forced him to walk couple of steps back. The monster suddenly turned into liquid, dividing itself into many curved spears, moving frantically and targeting the brunet.

"Dammit." Muttering, one clone jumped inside the fight, dodging the purple colored spears from perforating him, running towards his comrade as he readied another spiraled orb. "Eagle!"

In a blink, Eagle was already on the top of a tree, surveying the battle. The spears changed the direction, once again going after the shinobi as Eagle prepared some hand signs.

"No! I said, don't use—" Unfortunately, a claw pierced through the blond's clone, as Eagle's thorax expanded and he prepared to expel:

"Katon: Gokyakuu no jutsu!" A fireball struck fully on the target, as the monster received the damage, quivering in apparent pain. An eerie silence punctuated in a few seconds. Instantly, pillars of sharpened edges expanded everywhere, as they moved swiftly surrounding the brunet and fell rapidly—

"Rasengan!" Fox appeared with his jutsu in hand, destroying the limbs, as another one pushed Eagle out of range, both falling to the ground. "Fuck! Are you alright." The blond grabbed Eagle's arm, trying to check any visible wound from his friend. They couldn't stay for too long, as two claws dug deep to the ground, transforming into liquid as it snaked in both directions.

"What the hell is this!" Eagle shouted as he grabbed few shurikens from his wrists, ducking another attack.

"Now it absorbs elemental jutsu! We have to use non-elemental ninjutsu or else it'll react just like you'd done before! Fucking quick." Fox muttered as he cupped his shoulder.

Eagle narrowed his eyes at the wounded shoulder and rebutted. "You know well that I don't have a lot of non-elemental ninjutsus!"

"Man, really?" Fox created several clones, some stood next to the Takuyas to protect. "Teme, you suck!"

Eagle's glare was beautiful.

The blond replied cheekily. "We'll rely for now with my Rasengan, you use your Fuuma Shuriken. Let's try to escape from it as fast as—" The formless glob returned once again to its original form, before marching directly towards both civilians.

Tanaka never felt so terrified through her whole life. In question of seconds, the huge spider was hovering her as her uncle, Fox's clones were in protective stance, the clones were ready for battle.

"Dammit, take them as far as you can from that thing!" The original Fox yelled as he sprinted to their aid, Eagle not so far behind. The spider multiplied his limbs, jamming them to the ground and trapping them. Two clones were already making Rasengan, when the spider exploded, the liquid falling as the slime contaminated them, slowly taking the energy off the clones, as they puffed out.

Even if they didn't have any developed chakra, Tanaka and Noboru also felt the side effects of having their energy absorbed, as they barely could stay on the ground. The slimy liquid enveloped around their tired bodies, raising them up high, a column of liquid acquired solid form as it turned into a scythe.

The old man closed his eyes tiredly, looking at his niece. "Tanaka-chan." In a move nobody predicted, he concentrated all his energy left and pushed Tanaka off the trap as she fell to the ground.

This was enough to startle her even if she was feeling completely depleted. Her eyes registered in horror as her uncle managed an apologetic smile and the liquid surrounded him like a ball, flying swiftly away from the battlefield as the scythe still hovered above her. She couldn't help but whimper badly formed words, tear ducts welling up around her eyes, unaware as the scythe was falling towards her neck, ready to her in halve…

Eagle made quick hand signs, sounds of chirping echoing on the sky. A bolt coming from his hand grew and flew past Fox before the blond could register, before the scythe could sheathe a life, and pierced through the body, the electricity numbing the monster and stopping all actions it was taking.

Reacting instinctively, the liquid quickly connected to the Chidori, infiltrating through its pathway until it reached to the user, engulfing him completely until Eagle completely disappeared under the black form.

It was in this moment Tanaka understood why Fox was appointed as the leader. He didn't voice any startled sound, didn't make any excessive move. Actually, he just stood dumbstruck, sapphire eyes widening in shock as she could almost, almost, sworn that it was morphing into bloody red ones.

All of a sudden, blond brows furrowed into burning rage, some kind of protective, slight transparent reddish armor was covering around his arms. The monster was still in its liquid form, undulating slowly until it divided into many splotches, in which each of it were bumping on the ground. They turned into spikes, shooting in Fox's direction when the latter deflected easily, the burbling armor elongated and the size triplicated, promptly smashing to the ground as it destroyed some of the spikes.

Fox opened his mouth, his canines grew out of nowhere as he shouted an unearthly scream, too agonizing and shrill, shaking her to the core. With a snarl, the elongated bubbly arm clawed to the ground and the rest of the body flew in the following motion, the freed hand hammering and cutting the main body of the monster in half.

Both fallen parts quivered once again, before dividing into more pieces and flew in mid air, morphing into solid balls as they smacked from all directions to Fox, becoming the slimy liquid afterwards. A bigger watery body was slowly enveloping the motionless body, tightened around when—

Opening his slit eyes, Fox grunted as the reddish arms grew once again and clawed everything apart. Everything was scattered, though suddenly it gathered in one spiraled form and ended up resulting into another spear, targeting once again Tanaka.

"Kyaaaa!" She closed her eyes fearfully when the transparent arm grabbed the spear, smashing into a nearby tree with a sickening noise. All liquid was splattering through the air, though Fox gathered his two extra transparent limbs and entangled their fingers, hammering the remnants to the ground until nothing but dust was left.

Another half of the viscous liquid stood few steps away from them and for some wild seconds, Tanaka could swear that she saw some dark strands of hair and gulped dryly. It appeared that Fox reached the same conclusion as with another guttural snarl, shaking every nearby leaves of the forest, used the extra arms to fix on the ground as leverage to pull himself towards the other half of the monster, his body jumping high from the target.

The reddish armor was instantly gone, as Fox prepared another spiraling ball in front of his hands. The ball grew bigger and bigger, and it extrapolated the usual side he used in battles. The monster once again acquired some sharpened edges and was ready to attack him, though Fox remained undaunted from the shallow wounds, his jutsu already acquiring a gigantic form, meeting the target and destroying most of the liquid matter, until he quickly dispelled, looking for his teammate.

He only met the dried earth of the ground. As Fox saw the negative result, his neck was turning and moving everywhere in search for any other clue, his chest also moving rapidly from exhaustion.

Frantic mumbles escaped through trembled lips, as cerulean eyes darted everywhere for any recognizable trace to find. The liquid was now, once again, gathering to only one spot and acquiring the spider form, some columns already driving towards the static blond shinobi when he yelled frustrated:

"Dammiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt!" The transparent armor wrapped around him, this time covering his whole body. His eyes were turning into slit as his whiskers were becoming more pronounced, a sudden black form appeared at his back as he turned around to attack:

"Dobe!" Eagle appeared out of the black form and instantly grabbed the offending wrist, as another hand threw explosive tags on the monster, the blast instantly silenced the creature for once. "I'm here!" The brunet landed next to his companion, the free hand darting out to cup the tanned face. "I'm here." He connected his forehead to Fox's, as they slowed down their erratic breathings and Fox's armor was gradually dissolving away.

They stayed in the same position for an indefinite time, Fox sighing in relief as his eyes squinted in pain, rubbing his forehead to the pale one. The creature composed itself even with considerable smaller size than the original, the blond nin returning to focus on the battle and creating clones as Eagle muttered:

"Meeting point."

"Zx-1375." His teammate answered.

Eagle instantly disappeared before appearing one millisecond after side by side to Tanaka. "It's our cue to escape, Tanaka-sama. I'll carry you."

"But…is Fox-san going to be fine…? Is my un—" She gasped a little bit forlornly.

Eagle turned slightly to see his teammate in action, fighting against the monster. "I trust him. We'll meet him later." He picked her up swiftly and grunted. "Now we should take care of our part."

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The next few hours, at least for Tanaka, felt like a passing blur. Neither present people were in the mood to talk, her mind replaying on and on her uncle pushing her away from danger.

The few minutes she spared to observe her bodyguard, he was completely silent, unmovable. It was even slightly eerie, as his vision was completely set to the ground, not even bothering to blink neither his body would even shift a little, looking like some lifeless marbled statue, the whole body uptight.

She decided to sit to mull over her thoughts when at the corner of her eyes she registered Eagle moving an inch.

"You're late." Blond spikes, whiskered cheeks, cream colored uniform and tanned body suddenly materialized behind Eagle and onyx eyes turned backwards, annoyed.

"Hey, you didn't decide anything about limiting me some time." Fox muttered and Tanaka could almost see Eagle's apprehension draining out of his body.

The brunet silently appraised his teammate up and down, surveying any possible wound. Tanaka immediately ran towards the shinobis, asking:

"Are you alright? Have you succeeded killing the monster? Where's my unc—" She lost her voice as Fox returned her inquiry with a piteous gaze.

"I'm sorry. I…just defeated the monster, didn't have the time to find your uncle."

She softly gasped, as she collapsed to the ground.

"But I know his position, he's being held as hostage. I'd come here for Eagle's assistance and to re-stock supplies." Fox continued, tiredly.

"Noboru-jiisan is still alive?" She whispered, a rush of warmth entering in her heart.

"Yeah, I'm sure…The monsters were surely targeting us."

Eagle shook his head. "Well, obviously they were targeting us, after all, one of our clients is the daughter of—"

"No, I said." Fox interrupted, his face frowning with a grim expression. "They were targeting _us._"

"You mean—" Both ANBU averted their eyes from Tanaka, as the blond one continued.

"Yeah. The monster could absorb any elemental chakra, but above all, his timing of retaliation was faster to our main type of elemental composition, wind and fire."

"That probably doesn't mean anything—"

"That's because you didn't see when I was fighting them before we destroyed the spider thingie. Whenever I multiplied myself, they did the same and all of them were purposely using earth and fire type. It's like they were made especially to fight against me, a lot of them were wide-ranged too." Fox paused to recollect himself and then continued. "I heard a familiar laugh too. I think it's probably someone who have a grudge against us. When I decided to return to ask your backup, all the soldiers melted and solidified as a spider, and no matter how much I tried to avert the direction, it seemed that it knew your chakra."

"So there's a mastermind behind those things."

"And they purposely attacked Takuya-sama when we were at advantage. It also seems that this person know us well." Fox sighed as he scratched his hair. "At least, what I've noticed, is that if you destroy in their solid form, a portion of it dies out. I'll keep using Rasengan to blow them to bits."

"They also have another weak point, Fire." Eagle responded.

"Wha—you know well that your Katon—" Fox furrowed his brows confused.

"They are weak to fire. The fact that my Katon is inefficient is because they absorb the chakra who created the jutsu, not the fire itself. What we have in our arsenal is probably enough to destroy them too."

"…" Fox blinked suspiciously before muttering in indignation. "Are you saying that we're going to use only explosive tags and bombs like some kind of third rated genin instead of using lethal ninjutsus?"

"Do you have any better idea?" Eagle deadpanned.

The blond only sighed. He turned Tanaka, with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry we had to drag this horrible problem to you and your uncle. We'll bring him back, I promise!" He waited for a positive nod coming from her before rummaging inside his pockets. "I'll do some clones to protect you, but me and Eagle will have to go to rescue your uncle. Don't worry, I'll call some reinforcements to protect you as you go before us and—"

"No!" Tanaka shouted out of nowhere.

Astonished by her sudden explosion, Fox stared her befuddled.

"I mean, no. Thanks. I want—" Tanaka shook her head, and pleaded. "Please, let me go with you."

"No." Was now Eagle's tone of finality.

"Teme's correct, it's too dangerous for you to go there." Fox agreed.

"I know, I'll be probably too useless for all this, but please…I…" She closed her eyes to repeat vividly her uncle pushing her away from danger, and opened her eyelids with determination. "If I don't go there to help my uncle, I'll never forgive myself. He's like my father, he's the one who raised me and…all…" Tanaka ended with a whisper, a sudden clarity beckoning to her eyes.

Eagle sighed exasperated, his mouth ready to protest when his teammate cuffed the back of his head, grinning.

"C'mon. She just wanted to see badly her family. You can't blame her."

Eagle narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly before groaning. "**Fine. **But you'll be responsible in protecting her."

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"This is it. Here." In the middle of the forest, lied an abandoned three floors building, the vines and moss already covering up most the concrete.

"This is a genjutsu." Eagle's eyes suddenly acquired a reddish color, commas inside the iris were spinning slowly.

"Really?" Fox stared impressed.

Eagle rolled his eyes receiving in response a glare from his friend. "Yes, a very good one, but nevertheless, a genjutsu. The master is probably the one controlling it."

They stepped slowly inside the building, the slimy liquid slowly arriving and dividing into many pieces, acquiring a humanoid form.

"When they are humanoid, they can use ninjutsu, but on the other hand, they can't absorb elemental ninjutsu. Also, it's easier to destroy them once we cut them through." Fox pointed out.

"Have you already identified Noboru-sama's smell inside this facility?"

Fox closed his cerulean eyes, before opening into slit crimson ones. "Yeah."

"Sennin mode?"

This time, the blond shook his head. "Limit too much the number of clones. We'll need it against that many targets."

"Hn." Eagle unsheathed his sword, his position readying to sprint forward. Fox created some clones, as they picked up Tanaka. "Ready."

His comrade smirked. "Always if I'm with you."

They disappeared in a blur. A row of enemies were positioned in front of them as Fox created more clones, all of them making the same hand signs:

"Suiton: Mizu no muchi!" The watery whip bind around each enemy as Eagle cut swiftly each head. The water from Fox's jutsu were falling to the ground, but Fox made other hand signs to make the droplets stand in air, as the brunet lowered his body, swinging his sword and cutting cleanly many legs, the blond digging a hole with his watery senbons through another row of enemies behind.

Some liquid dispersed though recomposed itself into spikes and started shooting in their direction, Tanaka ducking as much as she could though thankfully, Fox reactivated his transparent reddish armor to protect her. Eagle made a clicking noise of disapproval with his teeth though otherwise didn't say anything, still concentrated on the task of slashing through some other victims. Fox _almost _tried to ignore the permanent stare, burning holes on his back before he shifted, dispelling the arms quickly. "Happy?" He shouted, making another set of clones.

Eagle only shrugged nonchalantly with one shoulder, his friend muttering something foul in response. Another spider appeared in front of them, managing to be bigger than the previous ones. Fox jumped high as Eagle readied his jutsu, targeting humanoid enemies on their left:

"Katon: Endan!" A huge jet of fire consumed a group of enemies as they fell on the ground, however, the brunet purposely aimed some to the spider, disengaging the automatic reaction.

Sharpened columns flew swiftly towards Eagle, though with other sets of hand signs, his feet prompted to be faster, walking through walls and ducking as the stray strikes killed many other humanoid monsters.

At the same time, Fox created a huge Rasengan and hit fully on the main body, dissolving into water as it was surrounding him. As the monster was enveloping the blond, he threw a bomb in the middle of it and jumped away before it had totally closed up, the monster exploding and effectively halting its movements.

"Directions." Eagle asked, using his chidori nagashi against each humanoid being.

"Left, 10 meters long." Fox created a considerable numbers of clones, each with a rasengan in hand as they eliminated every spiky and ball form.

However, the corridor was infested with humanoids. Eagle quickly began a set of hand signs, Fox comprehending, and making another of his own.

"Katon: Housenka no jutsu." Balls of flame were expelling from his mouth, burning the nearby enemies though:

"Fuuton: Kazekiri no jutsu." A gust of wind was created cutting everything in halve, until it merged with the balls of flame and propelled them to drive faster, destroying everything in vicinity.

"Now, it's to the right. Probably that door." Fox spoke as they kicked it away, opening the entrance.

"Well, well, well. Who'd have thought you bastards would survive." A voice echoed inside the empty room, they focused towards the origin of it until they saw Noboru.

"Noboru-jiisan!" Tanaka yelled as her uncle only whimpered a blade too dangerously close to his throat.

The one who held the blade, a wrinkled old man, widened a nasty smile as he raised his hand. "I have no more use for you, so you can die." An explosive tag was instantly stamped in his forehead and before he would explode, Eagle dragged Noboru out of range.

"Take care of him and now it's time to go." Tanaka nodded as she received her uncle to her arms, however, the whole room darkened, the slimy liquid oozing everywhere.

"I don't think so. _Brats._" The severed brain regenerated, as the old man bared his teeth smirking wide. "Now it's your time to pay the humiliation I suffered."

Fox was cocking his head to one side and cupping his chin with his fingers when he suddenly shouted, reaching to clarity. "Ah! You're that Shinnou guy right? Whoa, it's been for how long, 6, 7 years?"

Eagle stared impassively back. "Who?"

Fox made an impatient noise. "C'mon, you fought against him. The only time we coordinated an attack together when we were teenagers."

The brunet continued with the same blank stare.

Fox supplied more. "Ya know, back when you used to wear Orochimaru's man-whore clothes."

If looks could kill, the blond shinobi would be incinerated, incarcerated and burned into crisp from just the force of Eagle's glare.

"So he's just another loser for us to defeat once again?" Eagle turned to the enemy, wearing a haughty smirk.

"So it seems…" Fox grabbed from his pouch a kunai as the liquid started forming spiders, spikes and humanoids altogether.

"Uzumaki Naruto…Uchiha Sasuke…now it's my time for revenge!" Shinnou laughed maniacally before turning himself as a snake, his hands becoming two scythes.

Naruto promptly created Kage bunshins, two of it readying the watery whip, others with Rasengan in each side. The original one created an Oodama Rasengan, as Sasuke already had a Chidori in his palm, ready to strike.

"Now!" They both jumped and threw their jutsu together in the direction of the slimy snake, the blow and electricity wrecking a havoc in the battlefield, as the snake cried agonizingly.

Spikes were already aiming at them as Naruto only parried though Sasuke, with his tattooed wrists, summoned thousands of shurikens, repelling them and killing some enemies on the ground.

Two talons were ready to squash them though Naruto dispelled his clones, his eyelids acquiring a reddish hue and his iris were golden colored, as he grabbed both talons with his bare hands.

"Rrrrrrgraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" He succeeded in lifting the spider off the ground, and before it could become a liquid, he quickly swung around a row of enemies, throwing it far away.

All humanoids dissolved to morph into spiders and spikes, hovering around the humans.

"Dammit." The blond cursed and turned to Tanaka and Noboru. "I'll clear a path, please find some cover." Tanaka promptly nodded, holding securely her uncle through her shoulders. "Here we go…" Fox mumbled as he picked some bombs.

One scythe was directing to the Takuyas, though Sasuke parried with his Kusanagi. He pushed it away as his sword pierced deeply on the main body, redeeming immobile. Naruto threw several bombs scattered around the area except near their clients, as they exploded with a deafening noise.

The nearest circle of spiders were completely destroyed, however there was still long ways to clear a path. Sasuke embedded his sword with Lighting element, purposely activating once again the retaliation, distracting the back row as Naruto created clones two of them using Rasengan and destroying the spiders from the front row. Naruto himself accompanied both civilians, parrying and protecting any attempt of attack, finally finding the entrance to make them hide away—

"Don't forget about me…" Shinnou suddenly appeared behind them, becoming another spear and falling rapidly on their direction, the impact shaking the walls with a deafening crumble.

Though fortunately, after the cloud of dust was cleared, it shown Sasuke piercing on the neck of the snake as Naruto grabbed it with both hands, Noboru and Tanaka on the ground unscathed.

Sasuke flashed his Sharingan as he activated his chidori through his sword, expanding through the entire snake, and with another agonizing scream, it dissolved, only to reappear some meters away from them.

"How dare you…you can't defeat me! Not when I was sure that I'd ensure my victory against you after so much searching—" all the liquid was concentrating to the main body, making Shinnou getting larger and larger until he reached the ceiling. "I'll kill you all!" The gigantic snake attempted to pierce both shinobis, his teeth digging deep to the ground. Naruto shared a brief look towards Sasuke, and with a smirk he started a row of hand signs.

"Katon: Gouryuuka no jutsu!" He expelled a dragon made of fire, as it aimed towards the huge body, however it was attacked by long spikes.

"It's no use fool! When I'm in my ultimate form, no ninjutsu, taijutsu or genjutsu will ever defeat me now!" Shinnou roared as part of his body threw quick spikes towards Sasuke, as he quickly absorbed the jutsu.

The head had at last hit on Sasuke's body, as he pushed the brunet further and crashed him to the wall.

"Now I'm going to squish you and enjoy you dying by my hands!" The villain roared in triumph as suddenly, Naruto appeared behind him.

"Well old man, how about this!" Two clones were helping to create another jutsu, as one was making the spiraling orb though the other one appeared to be adding a whirlwind inside. The form of a large shuriken was slowly taking form, a buzzing sound reverberated everywhere, the whole laboratory was shaking from the sheer strength of it. Naruto promptly threw it towards the snake, as he turned around and laughed:

"Fine! Try it out! I'll absorb each inch of this chakra and use against you!" Shinnou opened his mouth wide, ready to engulf it when—

The jutsu dispelled and it revealed to be a normal Fuuma Shuriken, the gigantic metal star decomposing in four and flying to each side of the room, threads attached to it created an intricate trap with many explosive tags. "Wha—" The snake couldn't even continue his protest when, at the origin of all threads, all of them were attached to Sasuke's mouth as he expanded his lungs and prepared:

"Katon: Gokyakuu no jutsu!" the small flame slowly contaminated all the paths and ignited each explosion, Naruto jumping backwards when he saw, incredulously, a white armor around him, protecting from the whole destruction.

"Hey!" The blond complained as he saw his companion's star-shaped eyes spinning, though he couldn't continue when the ground started to crumble. "What the—"

"The genjutsu is off. This place won't exist anymore." Sasuke mumbled.

Naruto shook his head. "Well, but what did I say about using Magenkyou—"

"We don't have time for this, we need to find an exit." His sharingan returned to the regular shape, as he surveyed around. "The exit is there." He pointed towards a long corridor.

"Ok…but I'm seeing spikes at the end." Naruto squinted his eyes to see better.

"It's all part of genjutsu. That place is the weakest part of this genjutsu, the chakra is not so concentrated there. That's why he placed this illusion to compensate it."

"So…if we ignore the pointy thingies will be alright?"

Sasuke snorted. "It's still a genjutsu, if we see it, we'll believe it'll hurt and it won't do any good. We'll have to use Shushin no jutsu, fast enough so we won't see this trap."

Naruto nodded, comprehending the situation. "Ok, so you go leading the way—"

Sasuke interrupted. "You go first."

The blond furrowed his eyebrows, retorting. "Are you crazy, your shushin is faster than mine—"

The brunet repeated, undeterred. "You go first."

"Not to mention that I may stumble and you're going to laugh my ass off and—"

Sasuke turned to glare to his friend and repeated in caps locked letters. "YOU. GO. FIRST."

The cobalt eyes narrowed in the same way, retribution the stubborn glowering. Throwing his arms to the air, Naruto moaned. "Fine! Bastard!" He turned to Tanaka and said. "Sorry, I'll have to give you a piggy back ride, if you don't mind it."

"It's ok…Uzumaki-san." Both ninjas stiffened as the name was pronounced, Naruto crouching to help her out.

"The next seconds will probably be uncomfortable for someone untrained like you, but sorry, we don't have a lot of choice." He gave an apologetic glance and met timid understanding. "Let's go!"

It was almost like gravity was temporarily undone. Violent wind shocked towards her face as she clutched tighter the tanned shoulders, all the sounds of falling and crumbling being suspended until she saw a light—

The last thing she heard though, was the final sounds of a ruins being utterly obliterated.

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"ANBU Fox. ANBU Eagle." The daimyo looked with respect towards both bowed nins. "Thank you for accomplishing this mission. You're dismissed."

Both made a courteous salute and exited.

"Now…" The daimyo looked at his daughter as if he knew her for the first time. "Do you know the reason why I called you out, Tanaka…?"

Tanaka gulped, looking at her clutched hands that were gathering more sweat. At her back, her uncle still looked a little bit sadly, but still supporting.

"If you don't know, I'll inform you then. You have already reached the ideal age of maturing, so I had already designed some suitors that may fall in your tastes—"

"Actually." Tanaka interrupted, her father looking startled as if no one had ever dared to raise her voice in the middle of his speech. "I…wanted to say something…"

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"I can't believe you dismissed him. Just like that." Noboru muttered as he saw her niece's brilliant smile.

"I don't know…I think this journey made me understand some things. Make me value some things more than stupid ideas like ego and recognition." Tanaka replied giggling. "I guess I'll postpone my maturing and will continue to be your childish niece from now on."

"Eh? Really?" Both turned around to realize that the Konoha nins hadn't still returned their homes yet. "That was really courageous of your part Tanaka-chan."

Tanaka-chan…? She blushed slightly as the blond grinned wide, her uncle giving a knowing look and going away. Sasuke, on the other hand, was some couple of meters away, looking thoroughly annoyed.

"Thank you. Uzumaki-san, Uchiha-san." She bowed in slight reverence, Sasuke and Naruto looked slightly embarrassed from the gratitude gesture.

"Actually…Uzumaki-san." She called him to get closer and, puzzled, Naruto obeyed as Sasuke's glare was darkening.

"Are you two…together?" Tanaka whispered close to his ear, cerulean eyes blinked, not comprehending the question. With a sigh, she elaborated once again. "Are you two lovers."

This time, the blond caught the whole admission, blushing widely as he sputtered: "How and when—whu—why!"

She almost rolled her eyes. "I'm very observant. Noticed after some time. So…are you hiding because…"

He shook his head. "Nah. It's not like we're afraid of idle opinion, or whatever shit they'll spill…we just don't want to create unnecessary trouble since they hired for our job, not our private life."

"I see…" She lowered her head, giving a nod. "But…don't you both miss the closer contact…the liberty of expressing your feelings?"

Naruto shrugged, grinning. "Sure we do…some times. But we have already reached in a point of relationship that we don't need constant physical contact to feel each other's presence. Also, we've learned how to divide our profession from our private lives, this way is healthier too. Above all…" His lips curled a founding smile and he muttered. "Even if he's my boyfriend, mate, lover, teammate, whatever you want…the most important thing is that he's my best friend."

Oh…so she's completely defeated then. Tanaka motioned the blond again to approach towards and she briefly wondered…if she won't be killed for it.

Well, it's not like she'll ever meet them again.

Cupping the whiskered cheeks with her hands, she kissed his forehead and quickly released him, both to Naruto's confused embarrassment and Sasuke's complete rage.

"Hey! Dobe! Aren't you going yet!" He snarled as he already turned his back, marching in broad steps.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Jealous bastard." He grinned with a quick sign of goodbye to Tanaka and swiftly reached his lover shouting:

"Lead the way, chicken hair—OW!"

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OWARI

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AN: Waaaaiiiiiii-finally had some free time to write stupid things. Well, to anyone who'd question some things that I left unexplained here it is:  
1- Whenever Naruto's clone would drag Sasuke to talk about something, is because, if anyone had forgotten about this, if one clone is dispelled, the other clones will learn the new information after this clone disappeared. That was how Naruto was updating his investigation to Sasuke.  
2- Shinnou is from Naruto Shippudden movie 2: Bonds. Yeah, probably the fav. movie from all SasuNaru fangirls. 'nuff said.


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